Hoffa: We'll "Blow Up" Denver For Dem Convention
CAPTAIN ED
The Democrats may stage an homage to Chicago 1968 in Denver for their 2008 convention. The AP reports that the party's union base objects strongly to the selection of the right-to-work city for the convention and are threatening to disrupt the proceedings if Denver doesn't start using closed shops:
"The Democrats' choice of Denver to anoint their presidential nominee in 2008 has stirred up angst among unions, one of the party's core groups, because of Colorado's reputation as an unfriendly place for organized labor. ...
Last month, the AFL-CIO threatened to force Democrats to abandon Denver after Colorado's Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed a bill making it easier to set up all-union workplaces. "Unless we can be assured that the governor will support our values and priorities, we will strongly urge the Democratic Party to relocate the convention," said the AFL-CIO's executive council.
Teamsters President James Hoffa chimed in last week, injecting himself into a conversation between Ritter and Sweeney at a Washington, D.C., dinner to say they would "blow up" Denver with picketing and protests if union issues didn't get worked out."
Howard Dean has his work cut out for him. Ritter vetoed the bill last February, long after Dean and the DNC selected Denver for their convention. The bill would have made it easier to set up closed shops in Colorado by eliminating the need for a second vote on how dues get imposed after a workplace votes for union representation. It takes 75% to vote in a closed shop on the second ballot, which the bill would have eliminated.
That would have addressed the concerns the unions expressed last year, when the two parties announced their selections for the 2008 venues. Both parties gave much consideration to the Twin Cities, which does have decent union penetration and a protective political climate. The Republicans closed the deal first, and while the Democrats could also have staged theirs here, they also still had union-friendly New York City as a finalist. Instead, the DNC made the unusual choice to ignore its base and attempt to expand its reach to moderates in the interior West.
Now they may wind up alienating both constituencies. The unions feel betrayed by Colorado's Democratic governor and want to start strong-arming both the DNC and Colorado into forcing the state to accept liberalized union policies. Western moderates, who don't cotton to getting strong-armed by outsiders at all, will most likely react poorly to the effort. That leaves the party, its base, and its selected city on a collision course for 2008.
This has all the makings of a fiasco. If the unions follow through on Hoffa's threat, any hope of winning the general election may dissipate the same way it did forty years earlier, and they could frighten off moderates not just for the presidential contest but all the way down the ticket.
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